Wednesday, 18 December 2013

Eeek it's only a week until Christmas and I am starting to get a little excited! I love everything about Christmas, spending time with loved ones, the traditions, carols, food, decorations, lights and the general magical feeling that you get in the air!

I can't say that I am overly organised this year, as I still have a few prezzies to buy and a lot more to wrap. But all shall be ready on time with any luck!

The flat is also not looking overly Christmassy as we don't have enough room in our flat for a tree, but I do have a few decorations dotted here and there. As well as an advent calendar, which you can never be to old for!

I do very much look forward to having somewhere bigger one day that I can properly decorate, like we always have done at my parents house. Every year since I can remember we have had a real tree which we would go and choose with my dad, and then decorate with my mum. I shall hopefully get some pics to show you when I go round there on Christmas day. I did try today but unfortunately they didn't come out very well!

I did however manage to get some pics of another item that also appears at my parents every year, and that is our nativity display.

I am not even sure exactly where this came from, but it's actually a book that I had as a child which folds out into a nativity. They are only cardboard characters, but we all find the character of the illustrations rather charming. Mum says every year that she is going to replace it, but we never found anything that we like as much as this.

Whilst I am here I shall also show you a couple of Christmassy finds that I have bought lately!

Firstly my lovely Christmas jumper which I fell in love with as soon as I saw it in Topshop. It's soo snuggly and warm, plus the little gingerbread men and bright red colour instantly appealed to me.

Secondly are my new heart shaped jumper cushions, which again I loved as soon as I saw Wilko advertising them in a magazine. I have also given them a Christmassy touch by adding some cute little mitten decorations that I found in Sainsbury's.

If I don't get the chance to blog again before Christmas I hope that you all have a wonderful time! I also just want to say thank you all for reading my little blog, and for supporting me both here and by liking my Facebook and Etsy pages. Many Thanks I really do appreciate it, and It means alot! x

Thursday, 5 December 2013

This is going to be quite a quick post today, as it is getting rather late here. But I just wanted you all to know that my Etsy shop and Bobby Bunny and Friends Facebook page, are now finally up and running!

I have been working on and meaning to set both of these pages up for sometime now, and since I finally have enough products to get my little shop off of the ground the time seemed right to do it. My Etsy shop has actually been set up since I was at University, but I didn't feel that my images were developed an strong enough to go on there at the time. Plus getting engaged and planning a wedding, as well as working full-time didn't really leave me much time to focus on in properly.

I hope that you like the pages and products, I am hoping to add a lot more products and variety over time. Which is quite an exciting prospect.

I hope that you are all having a fabulous week, and getting into the Christmas spirit. Thanks as always for popping in! x

Wednesday, 20 November 2013

Yesterday was mine and my hubby's 2nd Wedding Anniversary, and it's crazy to think how quickly the time has passed since our amazing day!

We didn't really do too much for it, as the hubby was working up in London yesterday and didn't get home until late. But once he was back we went and got a takeaway and chilled on the sofa with a duvet, whilst drinking champagne and watching telly which was lovely.

I also had a little reminisce of our day looking back through our wedding photos! It truly was a day to remember and one that couldn't have gone any better, including the weather which we were incredibly lucky with as it was beautiful crisp and sunny day. Two and a half years of saving, planning, making, and pouring my heart and soul into that wedding definitely paid off, leaving us with many happy memories that we shall both treasure forever.

I thought that I would share some of the photos from our day with you!

On another note I hope that the wintery weather forecast overnight hasn't hit you too badly. We haven't had any snow here yet, but it has been cold and very wet!

The weather did seem to have taken a turn for the better prior to today, with some crisp cold mornings and even our first frost! Which was a nice change after having had weeks of wet and windy weather.

It was on one of these days the other weekend that my family and I seized the opportunity to go and enjoy a walk along the seafront. Which was made especially nice as we don't really get the chance to go out and spend much time as a family, with just me, my mum, dad and sister these days. My hubby had been out the night before and stayed over at a friend's, so rather than staying at home on my own I has stayed with my parents. I may be 25 but I still love going back to my parents and family home every now and again!

As always I manage to grab a few shots of the beautiful weather whilst we were there!

It's a shame that the weather hasn't stayed like this, but I would much rather snow than rain! As inconvienent as it can be, it's so much more fun and pretty to look at! So hopefully we will get some soon! x

Tuesday, 5 November 2013

Oh how I do love this time of year, the changing of the seasons and the
chill in the air and wrapping up warm! It has become a bit of a tradition in my
family that every Bonfire Night Weekend we go
to our local fireworks display before then going back
to my parents house, where mum cooks us hot dogs with onions, tomato soup
& onion rings. Which we then follow with sparkler's in the garden.
We have done it every year since my sister and I were tiny, the only difference
these days is that we actually go to the display rather than just watch them
out of my parent's bedroom window! My sister and I were never that keen on
the noise of the fireworks when we were younger, so we used to have our
own Bonfire party at home in the warm.

This year I took my camera along to the display,
and after realising that it had a firework mode I thought I would
have a fiddle. I wasn't expecting much as the modes on my camera don't really
tend to make much of a difference, but this time I was pleasantly
surprised. I got some good shots despite the windy weather, and the rain
just about held off for the duration of the display.

I do apologise for the amount of photos that I am about to show you, but I
just couldn't choose between them!

Oh and I couldn't
forget the fun that we had with the sparklers too!

If you went to see any fireworks that you had fun, and that
the weather held out for you too!﻿ I also hope that if any of you have animals
that they didn't get too traumatised by all of the noise. I know that I used to
worry dreadfully about my bunnies at this time of year, especially since they
lived outside. Plus my parents live close to our local display, but they
luckily never seemed to bothered and were just happy eating.

Thursday, 31 October 2013

Firstly Happy Halloween to you all, I hope that you have had a lovely spooky day! I haven't done much in the way of Halloween themed things today. Even though I did have my nails painted in a spooky style, by a friend that insisted that she needed to practice on me for her up and coming nail course.

I did however go to a Halloween party at my hubby's dad's house last weekend, which was thrown for one of our nephews. He has recently had quite a big operation and was disappointed that he was unable to attend his school Halloween party, so we thought that throwing him his own party would cheer him up! He and all of the children thoroughly enjoyed it and were dressed up along with the adults, the house was decorated wonderfully and I even carved my first ever pumpkin!

One of the hubby's cousins was also over from Germany with his new girlfriend, so it was lovely to see them both too.

Unfortunately the weather after the Halloween party was non to fabulous, as I am sure that most of you heard even if you didn't experience it. We had quite a storm here in the South East of England over Sunday night into Monday morning. Luckily we got off relatively lightly here in comparison to a lot of places. It wrecked havoc with the trains, which would have affected the hubby getting to work but luckily he has been off this week. If the storm hit you I hope that you were not too badly affected either!

Now onto an update for the "Arthur Mouse Plane" illustration that I have been working on, which I mentioned in my last post. Well I am pleased to say that he is all finished, and today I have posted him off to its new home.

The christening that it is intended for is next week, so I hope that the recipients like it. It will also be my first properly commissioned and paid for work too, which is rather exciting!

I hope that you all enjoy the rest of your week and the weekend which is fast approaching. If you are going to see any fireworks this weekend have fun, and I hope that the weather holds out for you!

Once again thanks as always for visiting, I really do appreciate it! x ﻿

Friday, 11 October 2013

You may be wondering what the title of my post is all about, well let me explain!

I was contacted be a friend of my hubby's the other day, who had seen my illustrations and wanted me do a design as a gift for up and coming Christening that she is attending. She explained to me that that the baby to be Christened is called Arthur, but is known as Arthur mouse (hence the blog title) and that his dad is mad on flying. Therefore if possible she would like an image of a mouse flying an old style plane as the gift.

I was more than happy to take on the challenge for her, even though I knew that drawing a plane wasn't going to be the easiest of tasks! In fact I am not sure that I have ever really drawn a plane in any detail!

So despite the fact that yes it was a little challenging mainly from the perspective point of view, I have managed to sketch out a design for her. It still needs a little tweaking and obviously colour but I am getting there, and am now just waiting for feedback as to what she thinks before I go any further.

I hope that the weather isn't too bad where you are! It's amazing how quickly the weather has changed here in the last few days from being sunny and in the high teens, to very wet, windy and much colder. I don't mind the cold, but I am not too keen on the wind and the rain!

Have a good weekend wherever you are, and hopefully it won't be too much of a washout! x

Tuesday, 1 October 2013

It's another baby themed post today, with a new baby girl card for me to show you all. It's for another of the hubby's friends who actually gave birth at the end of August, but we haven't seen the little lady yet so I have only just finished the card.

I liked the new baby boy design that I did back in April (Mocked Up New Baby Boy Card for Joshua!) and wanted to make a baby girl one to match. I didn't really want to re-draw the image as I liked it as it was, but I wanted to change the colour of the baby grow to pink. So I set about fiddling in Photoshop to see what I could do, initially the closest I could make the baby grow was purple but with a little perseverance I managed to get it to the colour I wanted. I then just had to change the colour of the stars which I did freehand. I am by no means a wiz on Photoshop and I am sure that there would be quicker ways to achieve the result that I ended up with, but either way I am pretty pleased with how it turned out.

Another change that I have made with my card this time around is that I have decided to personalise the envelope with the Bobby Bunny logo and my web address. This is an extra touch that I think that I am going to continue for future cards.

I hope that you are all having a good week so far! Both the hubby and I are off this week which quite a novelty, as this is actually the first week off that we have had together since we got married nearly two years ago! It's nice to be able to spend a bit of time together, so tomorrow we are off to the cinema and we are going to meet little Isabella who the card is intended for.

We couldn't go and meet her without getting a little gift though, which I definitely does not take much persuasion! I love buying new baby gifts and when I saw the little Joules Razmataz baby grow and bib, in blossom pink below I just couldn't resist! I just loved the print, it really is just too cute!

The prezzies are now all neatly wrapped and ready to go, and I hope that her parents love them as much as I do!

Monday, 23 September 2013

Well as you can see from the title of my post, it's been all weddings and babies here over the past few weeks or so. The weekend before last we had the wedding relating to the hen spa day that I blogged about in my previous post. Then last Wednesday one of my hubby's friends gave birth to a baby boy, three weeks early named Connor. I don't know if you remember the movie themed wedding that blogged about back in March under the Happy Easter post, but this is the same couple. We had the pleasure of going to meet him yesterday; he's a gorgeous and quite tiny weighing only 5lb 12oz.

I also wanted to share with you some pics of the wedding that we went to. It was a beautiful day despite the sky threatening rain all day, but luckily minus a few spots here and there the weather just about held out.

﻿

We all had such a good time, and it was that was made all the more special due to the fact that I have know the groom since school and the bride since college, which is where they first met. They truly are a wonderful couple and out of all of my group friends, they were always the ones that were destined to get married from the moment they met. I know that they will have a lovely life together, and wish them all the best for the future.

On another note I realised only the other day that it has been just over a year since I first started blogging, and how that has flown by! I just want to say a big thank you to all of you that have taken the time to visit and read my blog over the past year. It really means a lot to not only have the support of other likeminded crafty people, but also to be able to get feedback from you and to feel part of a community. I don't always get to blog or illustrate as much as I would like to now that I am working pretty much fulltime hours to help us save for a house, and this often frustrates me. So being able to read your comments about my work really spurs me on, and maybe one day I might just be able to make it my day job.

Friday, 6 September 2013

Well I am pleased to report that I had a lovely time on the
spa hen day that I went on last weekend, and as I expected I definitely need
that bit of rest and relaxation after a very hectic time at work last week!

As I mentioned in my last post I had never been on a spa day
before, but it was definitely worth it and I would love to do it again
sometime. It's probably not something that I would do on my own but as a
group I really enjoyed it.

Altogether there were thirteen of us that went there, and we
had exclusive use of the privately owned spa all day. The place itself was
only about a ten minute drive from where I live but I never even knew it
existed, as it is tucked well away in the southern countryside.

On arrival we had a welcome breakfast of mixed canapés,
pastries and champagne. As you can see below they almost looked too
good to eat!

I have to say that I cannot take the credit for any of the
photos in this post, as they were taken by a friend within the group. I was
intending to take some but was far too busy enjoying myself.

After the welcome breakfast we decided on what treatments we would be
having. I wasn't intending on having any but ended up treating myself to a
well needed pedicure, which was lovely. Before having a dip in the pool
and hot tub, which I could have stayed in all day.

Luckily the weather was good to us so we managed to get use
of the outside areas too, and soaked up some rays whilst chatting and
reading.

We then had a beautifully prepared lunch which like the
canapés didn't disappoint as you can see below:

The day was then finished off with a few more dips in the
pool followed by fresh coffee and chocolates.

I hope that you all had a fabulous weekend and good week
too! Unfortunately since the spa day I seem to have come down with a very
heady fluey cold, along with a lot of people at work.

I had a feeling that I would, it always happens when we stop
after the busy "Back To School" period. I think that we are all
feeling pretty run down from it. But luckily the schools are back now, and the
last two days have been days off this week so I am now feeling a lot better.

I hope that you all enjoy the approaching weekend and that
the weather stays nice for you as it's not looking too promising here! x

Sunday, 25 August 2013

Firstly to all of you that are within the UK, I hope that you are all having a lovely Bank Holiday weekend whatever you may be up to!

So far we have had a bit of a wet one, but it seems to have brightened up somewhat this afternoon and hopefully it will stay that way! Not that it makes a huge amount of difference to me, since I worked yesterday and am doing so tomorrow. But on the plus side I get double pay, and have had the day today to chill with the hubby.

I have also been able to mock the wedding card design that I showed you in my last post into a finished card.

I had to fiddle about with the layout of this design to get it right, so that I could fit on all of the information needed but also keep the design in line with the other cards I have done. I got there in the end though!

For the colouring of the text I went with turquoise to match the couple's wedding theme. I also used glitter on the dress and the flower headdress, but unfortunately no matter how I tried I couldn't really get it to show up in the photos.

The last issue that I had with the design was trying to find a button that matched the card. I knew that I wanted a heart and originally I was going to go for a pearl heart button, but try as I might despite the wonders of the internet I couldn't find one that was quite right. They either didn't match or would be to overpowering for the design.

I then looked at a number of different options including wooden heart buttons, but in the end I decided to experiment and paint a red heart button that I already had. I painted it white then sprinkled on embossing glitter, before heating it with an embossing dryer to seal the glitter to the button, and ta dah my little experiment worked!

I have to say that this design is definitely my favourite of the wedding designs that I have done so far, and I hope that the couple in question like it too. It's not long until their wedding now so it's all getting very exciting, and next weekend I am off on the hen night. We are going out for a meal on the Saturday night then out for a spa day on Sunday, which I am very much looking forward to as I have never done a spa day before. It shall definitely be needed by the weekend too, as I would just have worked the last and our most manic week at my retail job before the schools go back!

Thursday, 15 August 2013

Once again it has been pretty hectic here over the last few weeks, mainly in
the work department. This time of year is our busiest since the schools are
off, so I have been putting in extra hours and getting to work earlier plus leaving
later in order to get everything done! Hence why I have not had whole lot of
time to do much else. I have however just had the last two day off, which were
much needed.

I had a nice chilled day yesterday having catch up coffee, and shopping with
my mum. This left me with today to get on and finish the wedding design that I
showed you in my last post.

The design hasn't changed much since the initial sketch; I have just
given it the odd tweak here and there.

The main challenges with this design were trying to get the white dress and
veil to show up enough against the white background, and trying to keep the
characters looking consistent in each image. This is something that I have been
struggling with for a while now, which I am getting better
at but I think that it is something that is going to come with practise.

For the image itself I decided to go with a country wedding type theme, as this is
what the couple in question are having, and I have also used their
turquoise colour scheme. Overall I am quite pleased with the outcome, and I now I just need to mock it up into a card. Which hopefully I shall be able to do sometime over the weekend.

I hope that you are all having a good week! Do enjoy your weekend whatever
you may be up to and thank you for visiting. x

Sunday, 28 July 2013

I have had a relatively chilled out weekend this week, compared to those of
recent weeks. Firstly I have had both Saturday & Sunday off of work,
which doesn't happen often these days, and secondly I have had nowhere to go
& nothing to do today. So I have finally had the first chance
in a while to sit down and do a bit of Bobby Bunny sketching, which I must
say I have missed! This is what I have come up with so far:

It's just a rough sketch at the moment which still needs some tweaking.
But once finished it is going to be a wedding card design for
some close friends of mine, that are getting married in mid September. So far the image has gone pretty well and flowed out quite easily, so
hopefully it will continue that way!

I hope that you have all been having a good weekend, and that you haven't
been having too much rain or stormy weather! We seem to have been
pretty lucky here and have missed the storms and flooding that have
affected a lot of the country this week. Only having
had some rain yesterday and overnight, which on the plus side has
meant that the air is feeling much less muggy. But whatever the weather where
you are enjoy the rest of your evening and the week to come. x﻿

Sunday, 21 July 2013

Hello there! I am still here and have not disappeared off of the face of the universe; I have just been caught up on a big project for the last few weeks! As you can see from the post title, the project has involved decorating the bedroom of my friend’s two and a half year old twin boys. Which is something that we have been planning on doing for a while now.

It took us a while to decide what to paint as she wanted something that was going to be suitable for their age, but that wasn't too babyish that they would outgrow it. We also didn't want to go for anything too complicated, as we didn't have much time to do it in. So we put our heads together and came up with a range of ideas based upon things that the twins like from farm animals, to Dinosaurs and Disney characters, but we finally settled on jungle animals.

After coming up with the theme we then had to decide on how we were going to do it, and which colours to use. My friend came up with the idea of doing animals as silhouettes and found some reference images online that she liked. We than played around and adapted the designs to what we wanted, and decided to use a limited colour pallet to stop it getting to complicated & expensive. Then we were ready to go.

My best friend who is currently at university also doing a similar Graphic Design and Illustration course to the one I did, also came down for the day to help. Between the two of us it took about four hours to draw out the designs, but the painting took much, much longer that we had expected.

So what was going to be a couple day job, turned out to be five days worth of 12 hour days plus a couple of evenings. Unfortunately my best friend was only down from university for the day, so I had to finish it off along with the twins mum on my days off.

But we got there in the end and are all very pleased with the results. The twins also absolutely loved it and instantly wanted to move back into their room. Seeing their little faces light up definitely made all of the hard work that we had put into it worthwhile. See what you think of the results below:

Now that the room is finished I am just trying to catch up with everything blog land, and with jobs in the real world! Before then getting on with some new Bobby Bunny projects.

I hope that you have all been well and getting as much sunshine as we have here. The weather has been glorious for the last few weeks now, which has meant that there has been plenty of lovely barbeques with family and friends. I just wish that we had a garden of our own in weather like this, but maybe one day!

Before I go I must show you these lovely flowers that I had sent to work which was a big surprise. Especially since I had no idea who would be sending me flowers, as my hubby had no reason to. As it turned out they were from my friend with the twins as a thank you for doing the bedroom. Which was a lovely gesture especially since I had already been paid for it.

I hope that you all have a lovely week, and that the sunshine lasts for you all. But I do hear that there may be storms on the way, lets hope not though! x

Wednesday, 26 June 2013

Hello everyone! I'm back after having a fabulous time at Download Festival once again! I was hoping to blog after I got back last Monday, but it's taken me most of the week in between work to catch up on jobs, washing, e-mails, and sleep! Five days of partying definitely took its toll on me after I got back, but I am just about recovered now! I am also pleased to say that for the most part the weather did hold out for us, with just a few short heavy showers mainly on Sat, but it was still warm so we dried of pretty quickly. I even ended up catching sun a bit which was nice. I have to say that for me lying in the sun and listening to live music is just blissful. So as nice as it is to be back I do have a bit of the festival blues at the moment!

In other news, now that I am pretty much back to the normality of the real world, I am hoping to start getting some more Bobby designs on the go over the next few weeks. My working rota has settled into a bit more of a routine now, and I am hoping that I will be able to get stuck into some new projects very soon, so watch this space!

I hope that everything has been ok with you all while I have been gone, and that you are all having a fab week. I will leave you with a few pics from Download Festival 2013! x

About Me

Hi welcome to my blog & my life! I'm Jennifer I'm 29 years old and on a mission to become an Illustrator! I graduated with an HND in Illustration 2008, but after working full-time in retail to save for a wedding and our first property the Illustration got put on hold. After that I continued working thirty hours a week in my retail to subsidise me as I set up freelance selling my Bobby Bunny & Friends card range, but again time was not easily found around work, life, and doing up a property. Then at the end of March last year I was given the opportunity to take voluntary redundancy, so I now have the time to give my brand a good go at launching! I am a little eccentric and have an obsession with bunnies! I mainly draw animals as characters or in a realistic style working in watercolour & coloured pencils. A lot of my inspiration as I have grown up has come from my two beloved bunnies Milly & Molly, who both sadly past away at the grand age of 11 and a half in early 2012. I miss them both very much but their memories continue to inspire me every day. I also get inspired by nature and the outdoors, our one year old bunny Florrie, plus I love photography. x

Copyright

May I ask you to respect my work. Please do not copy or reproduce any of my characters, designs, photo's, stories or content without my permission. They are all protected by Copyright law. Thank you! x